Ryan and Casey plus 2

Yay for learning.  Remember when I said last year that I could not get Whitney to do "school" things for anything.  Welllllll its all changed now.  I think it might be school or maybe her interests just changed but she loves writing and practicing words and letters!  She can write her name with the appropriate upper and lower case letters without a model, can make almost all of the alphabet letters without a model and knows five read and write words.  She can even write them too!!!  Makes a mommy proud! Mere is also learning new things.  She is grasping things way out in front of her instead of holding things that we give her.  She loves laying on her back under a play gym and reaching for the objects.  She has always gotten so good at tummy time although she spits up every time she is down there! Love seeing these girls change and learn new things everyday, that's why I stay home...to be a part of this wonderful adventure :) ...

Whitney has a had a really fun time enjoying all of the fall things to do this month.  She went on her farm field trip with her school which I wrote about a few weeks ago and took Daddy to her school for pumpkin carving night; she also went to Shaw farm twice!  One time on a special trip with Mamaw and Papaw and another for her friend Graham's birthday party! We carved five pumpkins, made yummy roasted pumpkin seeds and special monster mix with white chocolate, pretzels, sprinkles as well as candy corn.  We also painted some little pumpkins, went on leaf hunts throughout the neighborhood, wore special Halloween clothes and watched some cool shows about Halloween too! She has her class party and costume parade tomorrow and then its off to trick or treat!!  Love this time of year!

The end of October is here and its almost 80 degrees!!  Well one day was that warm and it quickly turned cold again.  We certainly made sure to be outside as much as we could on that warm day because we know it isn't much longer until the cold days are all we have! Meredith tried the baby swing for the first time and LOVED it!  She doesn't swing much at all because of her reflux and the fact that she spits up if we even move the car seat she is in, but she did great in this swing.  It reclines pretty far back and she really just took in the trees and sunshine like a big girl!  Whit is super excited about that because she loves to swings and just wants to be outside as much as she can, so having Mere outside means mommy can join her too!

Sometimes I think to myself, "how will I make it until dinner time...."   It isn't one thing that makes me say that, it is perhaps a combination of a crazy morning with lots of poop, spit up, no sleep, and a tantrum prone toddler .....but we always seem to make it and have fun while we are at it.   I know it happens to all moms that stay home, it can get lonely, feel like nothing ever gets done but I honestly would not trade it for anything.  The things I get to experience everyday with these two makes everything worth it....everything:) You can come up with some pretty crazy ideas when you are stuck inside or close by your house.  Whit has become quite the hair dresser ever since her classroom opened up the beauty parlor in the dramatic play center.  She loves to see just how many clips she can fit into my hair and then of course it is her turn!  We even started learning some sight words.  She has quite the memory and is spotting the word...

Meredith is changing before our eyes!  It is crazy how different she is from one week to the next.  We have met two families with babies born right before or after Mere, like literally the day before, and have compared sizes......  Mere didnt start out to big but she is 4 lbs heavier then both babies we saw!!!  Another friend posted on Facebook that her daughter was 14 lbs at her 6 month check up.......Uh Meredith is over 14 lbs and she isn't even 3 months old yet!! haha!!  I love it, I would much rather have a bigger, healthy baby then have to worry about their eating and if they are getting enough:) She is such a laid back child.  She has really calmed down now with her meds and we are hoping the dreaded 7:00 melt downs are over.  She really only cries when she is super tired and lets face it, I kinda want to do that sometimes too!!  Meredith is going to bed around 8:00 and sleeps until about 1:00 then back down until 4 or 5.  It was a...